Party change and citizens’ retrotopia

The article argues that the persistent high level of dissatisfaction vis-à-vis parties comes from a mismatch between public expecta- tions and parties’ performances. The present lack of confidence in parties is not attributable to failings in terms of representation or the fulfilment of policy promises. A more subtle process is appar- ently in operation. Parties are, rather, criticized and even despised for the image they and their representatives project, an image far removed from what people expect. Public opinion is, in fact, affected by what Zigmunt Bauman called retrotopia, that is, nos- talgia for the mass party. The idealization of that type of party, still so entrenched in the European people, has caught parties in a trap: as they cannot return that model whose premises no longer exist, they have introduced some changes; but they have moved in a direction that is the opposite of expectations as they have acquired more and more resources. In this way, they have heigh- tened the image of a privileged, self-assured and uncaring organi- zation, distant from ordinary people. The contrast between the idealized vision of the mass party and the parties’ present reality has caused the unremitting loss of confidence in them